Dinesh Wagle on Nepali society

A Nepali Death in the age of Twitter and Facebook (RIP #GPK)

Nepal’s top leader dies. Nepalis all over the world react hysterically on the Web.

This blog entry is a supplement to a news report that I wrote in today’s Kantipur titled: निधनको खबरले भरियो फेसबुक [Facebook filled with the news of death (of GPK)]

click to enlarge ठुलो पार्नेभए क्लिके हुन्छ

When Girija Prasad Koirala was born in 1925 Nepal was a closed society under autocratic oligarchy and secluded from rest of the world. There were no Twitterers and Facebookers in Nepal.

After 86 years, Nepal is now a Federal Democratic Republic with a vibrant and open society that is so much connected to the world that the news of deteriorating health and death of Koirala spread all over the world in an instant via the Internet on Saturday (20 March).

Messages like “Rest in Peace, Girija Prasad Koirala” or its shorter form “RIP GPK” and similar messages in Nepali spread like wildfire all over the web via numerous tweets and Facebook statuses. Some of those messages might have appeared slightly before the iconic leader’s death and certainly a couple of hours ahead of the official announcement by the Nepali Congress party in Kathmandu. That, in a way, reflected the aam janata (common man’s) concern and interest in Koirala’s health and life in general. Koirala died at 12:11 Nepal Standard Time yesterday. Here’s a sample of conversations that took place on Facebook walls (Sanjivan Gautam is a Nepali scholar who is now in Germany):

Sanjivan Gautam May the Ex primemisnister’s soul rest in peace Sat at 12:35pmManish Pradhan he is about to die. mareko chaina raicha. [Hasn’t died yet.] Sat at 12:36pmSanjivan Gautam ho ra dai !! galat news deliver bhayecha !! [Really, elder brother? Seems like a wrong report has been delivered.] Sat at 12:38pmManish Pradhan but he is very critical, may not survive more days.Sat at 12:38pmSagar Mohan Bhattarai aba chai bite yar…[Now, he has gone, pal.] Sat at 12:41pmIshwari Bhattarai12:11 baje death bhayeko bhanera news chha ta..[There’s news report that says he did at 12:11.]Dinesh Kaflesanjivan ji, budha gaye hamilai chodera. the nepalese democracy has lost its great defender. [Sanjivan ji, the old man has gone leaving us.]

In a way, GP Koirala is the first Nepali statesman and internationally recognized Nepali celebrity to have died in the age of Internet- Twitter and Facebook particularly. The royal palace massacre ten years ago pulled attention of the world more intensely for obvious reason and was covered widely by the international press. But Nepalis didn’t have the same level of access to the Internet at that time. The interactive Web 2.0 (that is best represented by blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter) didn’t exist or was at its infancy then. The widened reach of Web 2.0 among urban Nepalis and the Nepali diaspora means they have forums to share news, discuss issues and offer condolences (and write obituaries) that wasn’t available to them until recently. This phenomenon, hundreds of thousands of Nepalis from different corners of the country coming together on a Facebook wall and talking about the same issue, is unprecedented in Nepali history. More than any other things, it appears, Nepalis are bonded by a hash tag: in this case #gpk. In some instances, like this one, the aam janata (general public), armed with rumor and Facebook account, has out-scooped the main stream media (and even the New Media) to break the news and offer analysis.

Girija Prasad Koirala is equally popular (or known, at least) among Nepal’s new net-savvy generation as he is among the older generation that is not really connected to the Internet. It is because he was the one of the most important and dominating persons in Nepali society in the past 20 years (time in which current Internet generation grew up hearing his name at least once a day in Radio Nepal or reading it on Kantipur]. It is also because Koirala had been active at the highest level of politics for the last sixty years.

There’s hardly any Nepali who hasn’t heard about GP Koirala. There are very few who are neutral about him: many either hated him or loved him. As Nrn Singh said in a tweet he sent me, GP Koirala gave Nepali people hope and dispair at the same time in his long political life (especially in the last two decades). [SinghNrn @wagle जनता दुखित भन्दा वढी चिन्तित छन् गिरिजा प्रसादको मृत्युमा ! सधै नेपाली जनतालाई आशा र पिडा एक साथ दिए । यिनको राजनितिक जीवन अवधिभर । 7:53 AM Mar 21st via web in reply to wagle] But in the past few years GPK had become become a national icon, a fatherly figure, a seemingly indispensable politician who appeared to have transcended the party politics. He seemed to have provided Nepali people a lot of hope because of his deep involvement in the peace process that ended the war in Nepal. That is why Nepalis all over the world were curious to know about this health and interested in the news about his death.

That’s the reason for Nepali people all over the world to frantically search Girija Prasad Koirala on Google yesterday. “Google Trends showed that Koirala’s full name was searched thousands of times in the US. This accounted for the ‘top search’ status of the name at around 2 p.m. NST (on Saturday).” said Bibek Poudel, an Internet media researcher, who also ascribed the heavy Internet traffic to Koirala’s “political clout”.

That’s a quote from an article in today’s Kathmandu Post in which Keshav P. Koirala and Amish Raj Mulmi talk how intensely the cyber world reacted to Koirala’s death. Several Facebook groups offering condolence to the leader appeared in minutes after his death and many Nepali news sites went out of service unable to cope unprecedented traffic. Here’s a portion of the TKP report:

Girija Prasad Koirala’s death shook cyberspace as well, with Nepali news sites witnessing unprecedented traffic from visitors across the world. ‘Girija Prasad Koirala’ ranked second in the search-giant Google’s most searched term on Saturday, the day Koirala passed away.Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with Koirala’s death from Saturday onwards, with new groups and tweets arising every second.

Following news of Koirala’s critical health condition and subsequent death on Saturday, Nepali news websites were flooded with visitors, with eKantipur.com witnessing more than 200 percent rise in traffic. Some other news portals were down for hours as they failed to cope with the heavy traffic.

Here are a few Tweets that I combed from Twitter as tens of thousands of people in Kathmandu were paying their respect to the dead leader (not in any particular order):

bishalkc RIP #gpk. We lost a leader who played great role uniting all. There will be power vaccum in #nepal, and future looks uncertain for years.(link)

[Since I am accessing Twitter from New Delhi that is 15 minutes behind Kathmandu, I am not sure about the time that is displayed along with the tweets.If the above time is Nepal Standard Time then Mahima seems to have RIPed Koirala 8 minutes before his actual death. If that is the IST, she out scooped the MSM.]

Sabita Rijal: Girija p. koirala’s death……… The country, political parties and the Nepalese people will surely miss himRaju Rijal: I”m not going to miss him.. Why to miss” brainles”s so called politican…

Ashutosh Shrivastav: With the fall of a towering personality, let’s hope Nepal gets a new and fair leadership! Har Har Mahadev!!

Ashes Pokhrel Girija prasad koirala,our morang tiger is dead!!end of political career for morang catwomen sujata!!विधान दाहाल the beginning of sushil koirala’s ….and the bunjee-jumping of santiprakriyaa..

Iam still in Shock. कसैकसैले यहाँ व्यक्त गरेका भावहरु असाध्यै समय सान्दर्भिक छ । गिरिजाबाबु जानु भनेको India र US लाई convince गराएर अघि बढ्ने एउटा व्यक्तित्वको खाँचो हुनु हो । I dont think there’s any other persoanality who was both a “Neta” and a “Rajnitigya”. Sher Bahadur is a pure “Neta” but he is not a kushal Rajnitigya and on the other hand Ram Chandra is considered to be a “Kushal Rajnitigya” but he lacks “Netritwa”.